healthy cats

It’s official – Winter is here! Even though we know our loved ones like to run loose outside, there are many potential dangers of not being protected from the cold. Here are some tips to help protect our companion animals on those unbearable cold winter days.

Cold Weather Tips:

1. Keep your pooch or cat indoors. Those who are allowed to stray are exposed to infectious diseases, including rabies, from other cats, dogs and wildlife.
2. Bang on car hoods. Outdoor cats tend to sleep underneath car hoods. This is hazardous because fan belts can do serious damage. Before starting your car in the winter, bang on the hood to give a chance for outdoor cats to escape.
3. Never let your pooch off the leash when there is snow or ice. Dogs can easily lose their scent and become lost. There are more lost pooches in the winter than any other season, so make sure that your dog has an ID tag.
4. Get them jackets and sweaters. If they are going outside, it is best to choose something that has a waterproof nylon covering.
5. If your dog has a long coat, never shave it down. More hair will provide more warmth in the winter. Be sure to completely dry your dog after a bath when taking them out on long walks.
6. Never leave your dog or cat unattended and alone in a car during cold weather. A car can act as a refrigerator in the winter, holding in the cold and causing the animal to freeze to death.
7. Make sure your pooch wears booties. Booties protect your dog’s sole from cold weather and harmful substances use to melt ice.
8. Provide more food. Dogs use calories to stay warm, so make sure to feed them properly especially if they spend a lot of time outdoors.
9. Warm bedding. Make sure your companion animal has a warm bed that is at least 3 inches from the ground to avoid cold drafts.
10. Warm their hearts! Give your pooch or cat some Freshpet treats that will guarantee to warm their hearts and their spirits.

Tips provided by ASPCA, PetPlace.com, and MentorPatch

Looking for the perfect gift idea for your special pooch or cat this holiday season? Well, look no further! We’ve put together a list of 7 great gifts that includes pet accessories, treats, and toys. Our pets have given us unconditional love and affection all year round so don’t forget to get them a cute gift or two. The holidays are quickly approaching! Check out our list below:

1. Freshpet Foods – What greater gift than the gift of fresh? Keep your dogs happy and healthy by stocking your fridge with Freshpet this season.

2. Pet Santa Costume ($16.95) – This adorable Santa Claus outfit comes complete with the jumpsuit, belt, and matching hat.

3. Holiday Tartan Dog Boots ($26.95) – These boots not only keep your pup’s feet warm, but they’re also stylish!

4. Holiday Penguin Squeaker Mat ($17.99) – Playing with this long penguin squeaker toy will keep your pooch entertained for hours.

5. Comfortable Desktop Cat Seat ($29.95) – Ever want to keep your cat our of the way, but yet an arm’s length away while you’re working? Here’s the perfect solution.

6. Dog Silhouettes Canvas Tote ($22.99) – Perfect for carrying all of your dogs belongings to the beach, while traveling, or just on a stroll to the park.

7. Cat Scratch Tower ($26.99) – This tower has dual toy teasers that will orbit over your cat’s head for hours while he scratches this post.

Thanksgiving is a time for getting together with family, being grateful for all of life’s blessings, and eating wonderful foods. It’s also a time for our dogs to sneak off with the holiday scraps. While it’s ok to toss your dog a piece of turkey here and there, there are potential hazards of giving your dog popular Thanksgiving foods.

Check out this list below that we found on I Love Dogs of 10 foods you should avoid feeding your dog on Thanksgiving, and any other day for that matter.

1. Natural Bones: It seems counter-intuitive, we know, but natural bones are bad for dogs. Carmela Stamper, D.V.M., a veterinarian in the Center for Veterinary Medicine at the FDA, said, “Bones are unsafe, no matter what their size. Giving your dog a bone may make your pet a candidate for a trip to your veterinarian’s office later, possible emergency surgery or even death. Make sure you throw out bones from your own meals in a way that your dog can’t get to them.”

2. Raw or undercooked turkey: One reason: salmonella bacteria. You can get sick from handling raw food, and even though you may believe your dog’s stomach is iron-clad – it’s not.

3. Turkey skin: Seems harmless enough, right? It’s just the skin. But, as blogs.dogtime.com puts it, “High-fat foods, such as turkey skin and gravy, can be hazardous to your dog. Since the skin is hard to digest, it can lead to pancreatitis (symptoms are vomiting, extreme depression, reluctance to move and abdominal pain).”

The skin isn’t good for you either, so it’s best to throw it away and make more room for the mashed potatoes and gravy.

4. Dough and cake batter: It may sound like an urban legend, but the combination of raw dough and your dog’s body heat can actually cause the dough to rise inside his stomach. This can result in vomiting, severe abdominal pain and bloating. Not to mention that the batter used in cakes and pies has raw eggs, which could contain salmonella bacteria. If you’re making a cake or pie, make sure your dog is not in the kitchen and, clean up any scraps or droppings that hit the floor right away.

5. Beer: Dogs love beer – but this doesn’t mean you should share a cold one with your dog. Beer can really do a number on your dog’s stomach.

Alcohol, especially the hops in beer, can be particularly harmful to dogs, causing intoxication, panting, fever, racing heart, liver damage, even coma, seizures and death.

6. Walnuts and macadamia nuts: These two nuts in particular are very bad for your dog. In fact, they could cause a toxic reaction called macadamia nut toxicosis. blogs.dogtime.com says, “Within twelve hours of eating the nuts, dogs can start to develop symptoms such as an inability to stand, ataxia (walking wobbly), depression, vomiting, muscle tremors, hyperthermia (elevated body temperature), weakness and an elevated heart rate. Usually the symptoms go away within 48 hours but the weakness, vomiting and fear can lead to dangerous, and sometimes deadly, shock.”

7. Mushrooms: Fungi are good for you, but bad for your dog. Should your dog ingest mushrooms, you can expect a slew of unwelcome symptoms that could become quite severe. Mushrooms can damage a number of internal organs, including kidneys, liver and the central nervous system. If your dog eats mushrooms, you can expect seizures, coma, vomiting and possibly death.

8. Onions: This is always on the list of foods your dog should not eat and for very good reason. They make your dog sick, period. Here’s why: Onions contain sulfides, which are toxic to dogs and can cause the destruction of red blood cells leading to Heinz body anemia.

9. Sage: This multi-purpose herb is used in countless recipes and for cleansing a new home, but to a dog, sage is bad. It contains essential oils and resins that can upset a dog’s stomach and do a number on his central nervous system.

10. Nutmeg: Nutmeg is a sneaky spice. Found in pumpkin pie and most desserts, nutmeg has mild hallucinogenic properties that when ingested by your dog can cause, “seizures, tremors and central nervous system problems. In severe cases, shock and death have been reported,” according to blogs.dogtime.com. Note that both pumpkin and sweet potatoes are good for your dog; just make sure no nutmeg is on them before you share them with your dog.

Source: I Love Dogs

We all have good intentions when it comes to feeding our pets, but it can be difficult to stick to our principles when those big, begging eyes are staring holes into our turkey sandwich.

To keep your pet in shape, you can use the same basic equation that applies to humans:

Controlled Calorie Intake + Daily Exercise = Healthy and Fit!

All dogs and cats require a certain amount of calories every day.  There are many factors that play into how many calories they need, such as age, pregnancy, and even climate (outdoor dogs require more food when the weather is very cold).  Your vet can provide you with a daily caloric target.  Don’t forget to include treats when you’re counting calories – they can quickly add up!

 Pets can benefit from regular exercise just like we do.  It helps increase their muscle and joint strength and improves their overall heart health.  Plus it keeps them busy and happy, reducing the occurrence of unwanted behavior brought on by boredom or depression.  Some easy activities to get you started include playing fetch outside with your dog or dangling toys to get your cat jumping.

There’s still time to get our furry friends in good form before the holiday season, when food temptations reach an all-time high for all of us!  Simply pay more attention to how much you are feeding your pets and find fun ways to get them more active.

*Always consult with your vet before changing your pet’s diet or exercise routine.

This week’s blog is written by Genevieve, our Freshpet Consumer Affairs expert:

When it comes to Freshpet products, you can ask me anything!  If I don’t know the answer, I know where to find it.  As a Consumer Products professional, with 20+ years experience interacting with savvy shoppers, I’ve dealt with products from vitamins to sewing machines, food products to hair care, and petroleum to pet food.  I jokingly refer to myself as a wealth of useless information because I can still remember previous companies and products.  But it does help when I want to remove a mustard stain.

Over my last four years, I’ve spoken with thousands of pet owners not just about Freshpet, but about their dogs and cats as well.  This gives me the opportunity to talk about my dog Abby, a rescued lab mix who has been part of my family for five years.  She constantly reminds me that I have the best job in the company!

As a dog owner, I appreciate the quality of the fresh foods we make, and that makes it possible to answer your concerns with truth and knowledge, allowing you to continue to make informed decisions about the nutrition for your best friend.

Freshpet believes all cats and dogs, especially those still looking for forever homes, should enjoy eating fresh, healthy food.  That’s why they donate whenever they can to local organizations in need.

Last week, Freshpet donated meals to Linda Ann’s Greyhound Rescue in Allentown, Pennsylvania.  It is an all-volunteer, non-profit rescue group devoted to the welfare of retired racing greyhounds.  Five new hounds had just arrived into their care, and will now begin their new lives on a diet of nutritious food.  “We cannot tell you how much this helps the rescue and the foster people.  We do so much appreciate it,” said Darryl, one of the dedicated foster parents.

Freshpet also recently donated to the Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter.  The 300 current residents there wrote in, “All of us here at BARCS send a THOUSAND THANK YOUS for all the awesome food and treats!  We LOVE Freshpet!!!:)  We are grateful there are companies out there like you that think of our loneliness here in the shelter while we wait for our furever homes.  A wonderful surprise like this great meal makes us feel all the more loved.”

 You can make a difference, too, by starting a “Pet Food Collection” in your neighborhood.  Here’s how:

• Contact your local shelter to find out what food donations they accept and what is needed most.
• Pick a date a few weeks out so everyone can plan ahead.
• Hand out flyers to your neighbors, telling them the name of the shelter, what products are accepted and needed, and the date, time and location where they can drop off their donations.  Provide your contact information in case they have any questions.
• On the day of the collection, have bags, boxes and coolers ready for easy transportation. 

*Freshpet donates to 501(c)(3) organizations.

This week’s blog is written by a new member of the Freshpet Team, Courtney.

When we finally moved out of our small apartment in New York City to the Jersey suburbs, the first thing I wanted to do was add to the family.  Although I plan on having a small herd of critters in the future, I decided to ease the family into it by starting with a kitten.  We adopted him from the Jersey Animal Coalition.  He was a tiny little thing that instantly melted our hearts, and my son named him Bally.  We had a great time picking out all the new kitty essentials: litter box, comfy bed, bowls, feathers and spiders that hang from sticks and doorways, and jingling bells.  But the most important decision was choosing the right food.

I grew up on a farm with a dozen cats.  We fed them dry food without giving it a second thought.  There just didn’t seem to be anything better out there.  I cannot tell you what a big “a-ha!” moment I had when I first came to Freshpet.  I thought, “Wow!  There is a solution for those of us wanting to feed our pets like we feed our family – fresh and healthy.”

I started Bally on Freshpet Select Roasted Meals for Cats twice a day.  At first Bally was skeptical.  After all, he wasn’t even fully weaned when we brought him home, but it didn’t take him long to realize fresh meat and veggies taste great.  Now he paces in front of the fridge whenever I’m in the kitchen, as if to say, “Come on Mom, I know where you keep the good stuff!”  He’s so full of energy, has a beautiful shiny coat, and is growing like a weed (do I sound like a proud Mom or what?).

I am so happy to be part of a team dedicated to helping pet Moms and Dads make better choices for their furry kids.  And I know Bally is very happy, too!

Introducing, Vital Complete Meals for Dogs and Cats.  The same grain-free, protein-rich food you love is now available in a new bite-size format.

Similar to ancestral diets, Vital Complete Meals for Dogs and Cats are meat-based recipes that contain at least 80% high-quality proteins and 10% fruits and vegetables for well-balanced nutrition.  The tender morsels are made from multi-protein sources such as fresh chicken, beef, salmon and eggs.  In Vital Complete Meals for Dogs, we mix the morsels with pieces of real shredded chicken breast and dried cranberries and spinach for anti-oxidant support.  In Vital Complete Meals for Cats, we add in vitamin-rich carrots and spinach.  Like all Freshpet foods, Vital Complete Meals never contain corn, wheat, by-products or artificial preservatives.

How do I know if Vital is right for me?  Vital is the right choice if you are interested in the benefits of a protein-rich diet (improved digestion and increased energy) or if your pet has sensitivities to grains.  Vital is also a safe and convenient alternative to raw feeding and home cooking regimens.

You can find Vital Complete Meals in the refrigerator at your neighborhood pet store, Petco or PetSmart.  If you have a question about Vital Complete Meals, or just want to let us know how your pet likes them, leave us a comment.

(Now you’ve got that song stuck in your head. Sorry about that! )

We know that Freshpet’s fans are our kind of people. You care about your animals like we do…like they’re part of the family! Please tell us why you feed your dogs and cats fresh food on our Facebook page or our Twitter feed.

Feedback, suggestions and photos from people who feed their pets Freshpet foods make our day. We especially love photos and videos of Freshpet pets. We answer every post, often with our dogs sleeping on our feet.

I wish Deucey was asleep, but he’s biting my elbows! Puppies.